Preliminary Hearings

ARTICLES ABOUT PRELIMINARY HEARINGS BY DATE - PAGE 3

A preliminary hearing for two men charged in the stabbing death of a Martinsburg man was postponed Monday until June 21 in Berkeley County Magistrate Court. Thomas Anthony Grantham of Martinsburg and James Glenn Cross Jr. of Kearneysville, W.Va., are charged in the homicide of Andre Jackson, who died at City Hospital after being stabbed multiple times, police have said. Cross is charged with murder in Jackson's death. Grantham is charged with malicious wounding in connection with the stabbing of a second victim and with attempted murder for allegedly trying to run Jackson over with his vehicle, police have said.

Waynesboro (Pa.) Borough Councilman Craig Newcomer has waived his right to a preliminary hearing on a malicious wounding charge in Berkeley County Magistrate Court. The waiver was filed via fax by his attorney, Dan James, on May 17, according to court records. Newcomer, 46, is accused of fighting with 44-year-old Ernest Cumbie at the Dirty Dawg Saloon in Martinsburg on Feb. 13. After the fight, Cumbie was flown for treatment of scalp hematoma, multiple facial and skull fractures, frontal lobe contusions and traumatic brain injury, police said in court documents.

A former Hagerstown man extradited from Eastern Europe last month to face decade-old rape charges appeared in Washington County District Court Tuesday for a preliminary hearing. District Judge Mark D. Thomas found probable cause on the charges against Klaus Werner Vonmahr and ordered the case moved to Circuit Court. Vonmahr, 51, who is being held without bond, is charged with first- and second-degree rape, third-degree sex offense, first-degree assault, three counts of second-degree assault and two counts of false imprisonment, according to court records.

A former American Red Cross worker facing child pornography charges waived his right to a preliminary hearing Tuesday in Berkeley County Magistrate Court. Samuel K. Bunner, 38, of Martinsburg, is charged with 48 felony counts of knowingly possessing material visually portraying a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct. Bunner also was separately charged with 87 felony counts of fraudulent use of a credit card, charges that are pending in circuit court. Following Tuesday's action, the Berkeley County Prosecuting Attorney's office now can present state's evidence in the case to a grand jury for possible indictment.

A Mississippi truck driver who led police on a wreck-strewn chase last week from Inwood, W.Va., to Greencastle, Pa., waived his right to a preliminary hearing Thursday in Franklin County Central Court. Thomas L. McNeel, 42, of Pontotoc, Miss., did not appear in court, but signed his waiver before Magisterial District Judge David Plum. Had he proceeded with a preliminary hearing, police would have had to present enough evidence before a magisterial district judge to have the case forwarded to Common Pleas Court.

The tractor-trailer driver who led police on a multi-state chase down Interstate 81 while allegedly under the influence of methamphetamine is scheduled to make an appearance in Franklin County court Thursday. A preliminary hearing for Thomas L. McNeel of Pontotoc, Miss., will be held at 1 p.m. at the Franklin County Courthouse, the county District Attorney's Office said. During the hearing, a magisterial district judge will listen to the state present evidence for proceeding with criminal prosecution.

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. -- A preliminary hearing for a Berkeley County woman accused of causing the death of a 51-year-old man in a July 15 head-on collision on W.Va. 45 southwest of Martinsburg was continued Wednesday. Jessica Nicole Faircloth, 21, was charged with driving under the influence with death after the Honda Accord she was driving crossed the center line and collided with a Triumph motorcycle driven by David E. Kessel, who died at the crash scene. After the crash, Faircloth tested positive for having benzodiazepine, cannabinoid and opiates in her blood, police have said.

WASHINGTON COUNTY -- A Finksburg, Md., man charged with 65 counts of child pornography will have his case transferred to Washington County Circuit Court after waiving his preliminary hearing Thursday in Washington County District Court. Michael William Zimmer, 39, of 3736 Niner Road, was charged in May in connection with photographs that police allege he took of himself and another man having sex with a teenage girl who had run away from a foster home in Hagerstown, the application for statement of charges said.